How hard is the water in Caldwell County, MO?
14.7 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Caldwell County, MO is 252 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 14.7 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 31 samples at 3 sites between 2009 and 2013, drawn from every sampling site in the county, wells and surface water together.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 12.6 and 15.4 gpg. The whole middle of that range gives the same answer, so a test of your own tap is unlikely to change it. Confidence in the county figure: medium (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 14.7 gpg a softener pays its way here. Before you buy, check the quoted unit's grain capacity against the sizing table below, and ask whether it regenerates on demand, which uses less salt than a timer. Call your utility for its own report if you are on city water.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 10.5 to 16.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Caldwell County was 179 mg/L and the hardest 274 mg/L, a 2-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 15.4 gpg and the bottom quarter below 12.6 gpg.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 322 lb of salt a year (9 bags of 40 lb, about $58), and roughly 2,346 gallons of regeneration water. Installed, most units run $1,000 to $4,500; spread over 15 years with salt, that is about $158 a year.
Sizing at 14.7 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 882 | 24,000 | 107 lb |
| 2 | 1,764 | 24,000 | 215 lb |
| 4 | 3,528 | 32,000 | 429 lb |
| 6 | 5,292 | 40,000 | 644 lb |
Caldwell County against the rest of Missouri
Among the 110 Missouri counties with data, Caldwell County is number 21 of 110 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 68% of counties.
Softest in Missouri: Livingston County at 4.1 gpg. Hardest: Reynolds County at 96.7 gpg. Closest to Caldwell County: Howell County (14.5), Pulaski County (14.5), Jefferson County (15).